“Offer It Up”

Past generations of Catholics were often reminded to“offer up” their suffering. Pope Benedict suggests thatwe might consider a revival of this practice:

What does it mean to offer something up? Those whodid so were convinced that they could insert these littleannoyances into Christ's great “com-passion” so that theysomehow became part of the treasury of compassion sogreatly needed by the human race. In this way, even thesmall inconveniences of daily life could acquire meaningand contribute to the economy of good and of humanlove. (40)

III. Judgment

In a world filled with suffer-ing and injustice, it is temptingto lose hope and wonder whereGod could be in such a place.Pope Benedict teaches in SpeSalvi that even in the midst ofthe world’s injustice, there isreason for hope: the FinalJudgment and the comingtogether of all things in Christ.

Why? Because if we depend on the world to makesense of itself, we really are left without hope. Whatwithin the world can make injustice and exploitation“right” or finally let goodness and love reign? Nothing.

But in Jesus, we find the answer. We see God’s answerto the injustices of this world, and it is an answer ofhope, living and true — Jesus, unjustly crucified, nowrisen and victorious over sin and death:

Yes, there is a resurrection of the flesh. There is justice.There is an “undoing” of past suffering, a reparation thatsets things aright. For this reason, faith in the LastJudgment is first and foremost hope — the need for whichwas made abundantly clear in the upheavals of recentcenturies. (43)

This judgment touches each of us individually aswell. The world cannot make itself whole, and neithercan we do that for ourselves. Our only and final hope isin the God who made us and we trust will bring usback to him, forever. In particular, in the Church’sancient teaching on Purgatory, we find hope in theburning, purifying gaze of Christ, as we stand beforehim in our weakness and sin:

His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through anundeniably painful transformation “as through fire”. Butit is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his lovesears through us like a flame, enabling us to become total-ly ourselves and thus totally of God. In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: theway we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defile-ment does not stain us for ever if we have at least contin-ued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth andtowards love. (47)

Mary, Star of Hope

Life can sometimes seem like along, dark night, in which we des-perately search for light to guideour way and give us hope. PopeBenedict reminds us that a tradi-tional title for Mary is Ave MarisStella, or “Star of the Sea,” becauseher faith in Jesus, like that of all thesaints, is a witness to the power of

hope in God’s promise. He ends Spe Salvi asking Maryto be with us as we journey in hope:

Thus you remain in the midst ofthe disciples as their Mother, as theMother of hope. Holy Mary, Motherof God, our Mother, teach us tobelieve, to hope, to love with you.Show us the way to his Kingdom!Star of the Sea, shine upon us andguide us on our way! (50)

For More Information:

Pope Benedict XVI. The Apostles, 2007

———. Questions and Answers, 2008

Archbishop Timothy N. Dolan. Called to Be Holy, 2005

Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel. The Virtue-Driven Life, 2006

Fr. Benedict J. Groeschel and Bishop Robert J. Baker.When Did We See You, Lord? , 2005

Amy Welborn. Here. Now. A Catholic Guide to the GoodLife, 2005

All books above available through Our Sunday Visitor.

For the full text of Pope Benedict XVI’s Encyclical SpeSalvi, “Saved by Hope,” go to the Vatican Web site atwww.vatican.va.

1207

For additional Catholic resourcesor to order bulk copies of this pamphlet contact:

200 Noll Plaza • Huntington, IN 467501-800-348-2440 • Fax: 1-800-498-6709 • www.osv.com

The Scripture citations used in this work are taken from the SecondCatholic Edition of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV),copyright 1965, 1966, 2006 by the Division of Christian Education ofthe National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States ofAmerica. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2007 by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.

By Amy WelbornInventory No. P546

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“Hope is a virtue” is a familiar saying, and it’s true.Hope is a virtue: one of the three theological virtues,the others being faith and love.

The virtue of hope involves desiring the joy of eternallife with God above everything else and depending onGod’s grace, rather than our own strength, on thatjourney. (CCC #1817)

Hope can be a challenge, though. There are somany voices in the world trying to convince us thatGod isn’t real, so why hope in him? We are encour-aged to place our hope in human achievement —including our own — instead. We suffer and losehope. The reality of death frightens us into hope-lessness.

In his second encyclical, Spe Salvi, Pope Benedictteaches us about hope. He answers the questionsthat people today have about what hope really isand reminds us of the truly Good News at theheart of our Christian hope:

Heaven is not empty. Life is not a simple productof laws and the randomness of matter, but withineverything and at the same time above everything,there is a personal will, there is a Spirit who in Jesushas revealed himself as Love. (5)

What Is Hope?

Pope Benedict begins with the hope of the earlyChristians. They lived in a world that placed its hope infalse gods, an indifferent universe, and limited humanphilosophies — a world perhaps not so different fromours, after all.

St. Paul reminded these early Christians often thatthey had been saved from all of that — freed from falsehope and given the real hope of eternal life through thedeath and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrownopen. The one who has hope lives differently; the one whohopes has been granted the gift of a new life. (2)

This is our hope, as well.

In Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict highlights several impor-tant characteristics of hope:

• Hope is rooted in Jesus Christ:The true shepherd is one who knows even

the path that passes through the valley ofdeath; one who walks with me even on

the path of final solitude, where noone can accompany me, guiding methrough: he himself has walked thispath, he has descended into thekingdom of death, he has conquereddeath, and he has returned toaccompany us now and to give usthe certainty that, together withhim, we can find a way through. (6)

• Hope changes our lives:God is the foundation of hope: not

any god, but the God who has ahuman face and who has loved us tothe end, each one of us and human-ity in its entirety. His Kingdom isnot an imaginary hereafter, situatedin a future that will never arrive;his Kingdom is present wherever heis loved and wherever his lovereaches us. (31)

• Hope unites us to others in Christ.Our hope is always essentially also

hope for others; only thus is it trulyhope for me too. As Christians weshould never limit ourselves to asking:how can I save myself? We should alsoask: what can I do in order that othersmay be saved and that for them too thestar of hope may rise? Then I will havedone my utmost for my own personalsalvation as well. (48)

In communion with Christ, we live in real and lastinghope, a hope that the love of Christ impels us to sharewith the world.

Pope Benedict gives us examples of faithful disciples,strong in hope, throughout his encyclical: St. Augustineof Hippo (354-430), Vietnamese martyr St. Paul Le-Bao-Tinh (d. 1857), Vietnamese Cardinal Nguyen VanThuan (1928-2002) and St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947).

St. Josephine was brought as a slave, beaten andabused, from the Sudan to Italy, where she found faithin Jesus, was received into the Church, and experiencedreal freedom. She joined a religious congregation andspoke throughout Italy, sharing her story:

Now she had “hope” — no longer sim-ply the modest hope of finding masterswho would be less cruel, but the greathope: “I am definitively loved and what-ever happens to me — I am awaited bythis Love. And so my life is good.” (3)

The Temptation of False Hope

We all place hope in many things in life, great andsmall. All ultimately fail us.

We have hope that our personal efforts or relation-ships will bring us happiness, and they do — for awhile. Our world invites us to have hope in the greatmaterial and scientific achievements of humanity.These achievements are certainly a good, but they alsohave the power to cause great destruction and warp thehuman spirit. We also know that even in the midst ofthis kind of progress, human beings can still be sad andlonely, drifting without lasting hope. We can’t place ourultimate hope in the things of this world. The only surehope is that which God — who is eternal, unchanging,and faithful truth, love, and life — offers.

As Pope Benedict writes:Let us say once again: we need the greater and lesser

hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are notenough without the great hope, which must surpass every-thing else. This great hope can only be God, who encom-passes the whole of reality and who can bestow upon uswhat we, by ourselves, cannot attain. (31)

Learning and Practicing Hope

The virtues, including hope, are gifts from God, butwe have a part to play in how they shape our lives. PopeBenedict highlights three major areas in which we canlearn and practice the virtue of hope and let it take rootin our lives.

I. Prayer

Of course, we all come to God with our weaknessand emptiness, seeking hope. Pope Benedict reminds usfirst that when we join these yearnings of our heartswith the great ancient prayers of God’s people, theChurch, we do steadily grow in real hope:

In prayer we must learn what wecan truly ask of God — what is wor-thy of God. We must learn that wecannot pray against others. We mustlearn that we cannot ask for thesuperficial and comfortable thingsthat we desire at this moment — thatmeagre, misplaced hope that leads usaway from God. We must learn topurify our desires and our hopes. (33)

II.Action and Suffering

Our actions of love and service teach us hope. Ourhope in God and his greater purposes give us thecourage to follow him and bring goodness and justiceinto this broken world — to bring the hope of Christ toothers. (See #35)

Suffering, too, teaches us hope because in that suffer-ing, we are not alone. Jesus is our companion, and oursuffering is joined to his:

Suffering and torment is still terrible and well-nighunbearable. Yet the star of hope has risen — the anchor ofthe heart reaches the very throne of God. Instead of evilbeing unleashed within man, the light shines victorious:suffering — without ceasing to be suffering — becomes,despite everything, a hymn of praise. (37)

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